Beware Mr Moore

Chapter 2 - An Angel In Demon's Clothes

EDWARD

I spent that night curled up in some gross alleyway behind a takeout restaurant only a few streets from the house. I didn't even want to think about all the germs and diseases possibly formulating in the spot I had chosen. I used the deep green hoodie I had been wearing as a blanket to keep me a little warmer and curled up in an attempt to conserve heat. It was dark and cold but it was my only real option. I had no money so I couldn't stay in a hotel room and I couldn't exactly go home.

The chill night air allowed the blood on my face and hands to dry quickly; I made a mental note to wash it off of my skin somewhere before I ventured into the sunlight in the morning. The stars above me were brilliantly bright in the dulled light of the night time, allowing most of the brighter stars to shine obstinate against the few street lights which stood tall along the main road. I'm not sure how long I sat there watching the stars and naming any constellations I was lucky enough to spot in the slitter of sky visible to me but I must have fallen asleep because I woke up the following morning due to sunlight breaking through my eyelids.

It was only just becoming dawn so there weren't many people around just yet; the perfect time to find a change of clothes and clean up a little. I knew exactly where I had run to last night and I knew for sure that there was a river flowing not too far from my location which I could use to wash off all the blood that had gotten onto me, it was a sewer network that began as a river so if I went along far enough I would find clean water. I began to make my way there, dodging the few people who were on their way to work until I made it to the riverbank.

It only took half an hour to get all the blood from off of my hands and face, my clothes, of course, fared slightly worse as they had stained during my sleep. I knew at that point that I would have to find new clothes for sure as these would give me away too easily. Again, there was a charity shop not too far into the town centre so I wouldn't be seen which always had spare clothes outside for the homeless which...I suppose I was. I began to make my way there but had to duck into an alley when a motorcycle flashed past me, I feared the driver may have seen the blood on my clothes but I must have been wrong as the driver continued on his own journey to the parking lot of town centre. Surely, if he had seen anything then he would have stopped or at least would have slowed down to get a better look.

I arrived at the charity store fairly quickly after that, almost jogging so not to be spotted again but knew I still had to move fast behind the store if I wanted to change out of my blood-stained clothes before the town came to life fully. As always, I was right about the spare clothes being outside. There were various black sacks overflowing with clothing in all kinds of fashion and sizes for both men and women including dresses and a nightgown. One of the black bags had a pair of jeans and a plain light blue top peeking out of the open top so I took both as well as the pink bow tie just below them and began to make my way from the alleyway when I noticed out of the corner of my eye, a rather pleasant looking dark blue trench coat.

Of course, I snatched that up too. It was a perfect fit.

Once changed, I ventured into the street in hopes of finding some money, or even someone to pickpocket some money from. I didn't enjoy stealing as usually stealing came with punishments such as jail or the time-out step. Although, when I thought back to the situation I was in I suppose if I was caught I'd have gone to jail anyway for murder so that probably would have been a bigger concern and the time-out corner didn't really apply anymore. Jail wouldn't be ideal, I'm not good with cramped spaces, see.

It would have driven me...well...more insane.

I made my way towards the nearest George's for one of their world famous sausage rolls, picking up the odd few coins from the street on the way; not nearly enough for even half of a mouldy sausage roll.